Five SNP Councillors led by the Development & Regeneration spokesperson, Cllr Kenny McLean, will today challenge the Labour administration through a ‘call-in’ procedure at the Finance Corporate and Trading Services Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee (Wednesday 16 January, 2008 13:30) to stop its ‘control anything and everything’ approach to the re-establishment of Area Committees, and suggests that the Labour administration learn to trust the people to know what’s best for their area.

Development & Regeneration Spokesperson for the SNP, Councillor Kenny McLean, said today: "The Labour Party only has a majority of councillors in 11 of the 21 multi-member wards in Glasgow but think that they can dictate that they will chair every Area Committee based on multi-member wards. This smacks of ‘control freakery’ gone mad. One of the key lessons of the 2007 elections is that the Labour Party must learn to trust the people and in doing so, allow Area Committees to choose their own chairperson.

"The Scottish Government is about to announce an enhanced role for Community Councils but it looks like Labour are sticking their heads in the sand rather than coming forward with proposals which are democratic and empower local representatives.  The Area Committees should be re-established quickly and encouraged to review their own remit following the publication of the Scottish Government’s  proposals.

"The Labour administration need only look to other Labour-led administrations to see that being in power does not mean having to be all-powerful."

Note:

Of the 21 multi-member wards of Glasgow City Council, Labour have a majority of councillors in 11 wards, have 50% of councillors in 6 wards, and are in a minority in 4 wards.